By default, PlateSpin Recon does not collect data for the additional disk utilization counters as a part of monitoring of Windows machines. After you inventory the target Windows machines, you can choose to collect data for additional monitoring counters by deploying the appropriate add-on on the target Windows machine. Subsequently, if you do not want PlateSpin Recon to collect the additional data, you can undeploy the add-on from the target Windows machine.
PlateSpin Recon currently provides the Windows Disk Counters add-on and the WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on. The add-on deployment or undeployment on the target Windows machine is not coupled with the starting and stopping of monitoring of the target machines. Consequently, for the add-on deployment or undeployment to be effective on the target machine, you must stop monitoring the machine and then begin monitoring the machine again.
PlateSpin Recon provides you the flexibility to choose the granularity at which you want to the collect the monitoring data for inventoried Windows machines. For example:
To collect additional disk-level and volume-level counters for the inventoried Windows machines, deploy the Windows Disk Counters add-on.
To procure block-level disk I/O for the inventoried Windows machines, deploy the WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on.
Although the deploy and undeploy add-on options are available for the Citrix XenServer and Virtual Center machines, the Disk Utilization Counters add-on is deployed or undeployed only on the Windows virtual machines hosted on the Citrix XenServer and Virtual Center machines.
NOTE:On a Windows Server 2000 SP4 machine, you cannot deploy the WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on.
Review the following sections:
You can deploy a PlateSpin Recon add-on on a target Windows machine after you inventory the target machine and before or after you start monitoring of the machine.
To deploy an add-on on a target Windows machine:
In the Data Center Explorer, right-click the target Windows machine, click Add-On, then click Deploy.
The Deploy Add-On dialog box is displayed.
In the Add-On Name drop-down list, select the add-on you want to deploy. By default, Windows Disk Counters Add-On is selected.
PlateSpin Recon currently supports deployment of the Windows Disk Counters add-on and WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on. If you select WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on, skip to Step 4.
(Conditional) If the Remote Registry service has dependent services, decide how you want to restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry service.
If you want the dependent services to be automatically restarted after the deployment of the add-on, select the Automatically restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry Service check box.
If you want to manually restart the dependent services at a later time, leave the Automatically restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry Service check box deselected.
IMPORTANT:The deployment of the Windows Disk Counters add-on automatically restarts the Remote Registry service on the target machine.
Click OK. After the deployment job completes, one of the following takes place depending on the add-on deployed:
Windows Disk Counters add-on: HWInputMonPerfInfo.dll is deployed on the target 32-bit Windows machine and HWInputMonPerfInfo64.dll is deployed on the target 64-bit Windows machine. The DLLs gets registered to perfmon that runs on the target machine as an extension DLL for collecting the additional counters. The content of PlateSpinRecon_installation_directory\services\monitoring\windows directory located on the PlateSpin Recon Server is copied to the %systemroot%\PlateSpinRecon-DiskUtil directory on the target machine. Here, %systemroot% is the complete path of the WINDOWS directory such as c:\WINDOWS or c:\WINNT.
WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on: PlateSpin Disk Monitoring Service 4.0 is deployed on the target Windows machine. This service runs on the target machine for collecting the additional counter. The content of PlateSpinRecon_installation_directory\services\BlockBasedDiskMonitoring\windows directory located on the PlateSpin Recon Server is copied to the %systemroot%\PlateSpinRecon-BlockBasedDiskUtil directory on the target machine. Here, %systemroot% is the complete path of the WINDOWS directory such as c:\WINDOWS.
(Conditional) If you chose to manually restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry service in Step 3, restart the services on the target machine.
(Conditional) If you deployed the add-on while the target machine was being monitored, perform the following tasks:
Stop monitoring the target machine.
Start monitoring the target machine.
IMPORTANT:If you do not stop and start monitoring the target machine, the Windows disk utilization counters data is not collected.
To view the deployment status of the add-on, right-click the target machine in the Data Center Explorer, click Properties, then click the General tab. The deployment status is displayed as a message in Notes.
For example, the following message is displayed if the deployment of the Windows Disk Counter Add-on is successful:
Windows Disk Counter Add-on is deployed.
After you deploy the Windows Disk Counters add-on on a target Windows machine, if you delete the machine object from the PlateSpin Recon Client, following is the resultant on the machine:
If the target Windows machine does not have dependents on the Remote Registry service, all the files pertaining to the Windows Disk Counters add-on are deleted, perfmon counters are undeployed, and the Remote Registry service is restarted. However, messages indicating these operations are not displayed in the Job Explorer in the PlateSpin Recon Client.
If the target Windows machine has dependents on the Remote Registry service, all the files pertaining to the Windows Disk Counters add-on are deleted and perfmon counters are undeployed but the Remote Registry service is not restarted. However, messages indicating these operations are not displayed in the Job Explorer in the PlateSpin Recon Client.
In the Data Center Explorer, right-click the target Windows machine from which you want to undeploy the PlateSpin Recon add-on, then click Add-On, then click UnDeploy.
The UnDeploy Add-On dialog box is displayed.
In the Add-On Name drop-down list, select the add-on you want to undeploy. By default, Windows Disk Counters Add-On is selected.
PlateSpin Recon currently supports undeployment of the Windows Disk Counters add-on and WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on. If you select WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on, skip to Step 4.
(Conditional) If the Remote Registry service has dependent services, decide how you want to restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry service.
If you want the dependent services to be automatically restarted after the undeployment of the add-on, select the Automatically restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry Service check box.
If you want to manually restart the dependent services at a later time, leave the Automatically restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry Service check box deselected.
IMPORTANT: The undeployment of the Windows Disk Counters add-on automatically restarts the Remote Registry service on the target machine.
Click OK. After the undeployment job completes, one of the following occurs depending on the add-on undeployed:
Windows Disk Counters add-on: The %systemroot%\PlateSpinRecon-DiskUtil directory on the target machine is deleted. HWInputMonPerfInfo.dll and HWInputMonPerfInfo64.dll are unregistered from the perfmon running on the target 32-bit Windows machine and the 64-bit Windows machine respectively.
WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on: The PlateSpin Disk Monitoring Service 4.0 service is removed from the target Windows machine. The %systemroot%\PlateSpinRecon-BlockBasedDiskUtil directory on the target machine is deleted.
(Conditional) If you chose to manually restart the services that are dependent on the Remote Registry service in Step 3, restart the services on the target machine.
(Conditional) If you undeployed the add-on while the target machine was being monitored, perform the following tasks:
Stop monitoring the target machine.
Start monitoring the target machine.
NOTE:If you do not stop and start monitoring the target machine, you encounter the following error:
Category does not exist
For more information on how to troubleshoot the error, see Monitoring of a Windows machine displays the “Category does not exist” error in the monitoring log.
After you undeploy the add-on from the target Windows machine, the add-on deployment message is removed from the Properties page of the target machine (General tab > Notes section).
On a non-Windows machine, PlateSpin Recon collects data for the following disk utilization counters by default. However on a target Windows machine, you must deploy the Windows Disk Counters add-on to collect data for the following additional disk utilization counters:
PhysicalDisk_TotalSpaceGB
PhysicalDisk_FreeSpaceGB
PhysicalDisk_UsedSpaceGB
PhysicalDisk_PercentFreeSpace
PhysicalDisk_PercentUsedSpace
PhysicalDisk_UnpartitionedSpaceGB
PhysicalDisk_PartitionedSpaceGB
PhysicalDisk_PercentUnpartitionedSpace
PhysicalDisk_PercentPartitionedSpace
LogicalDisk_UsedMegaBytes
LogicalDisk_PercentUsedSpace
For information on deploying the add-on, see Section 3.12.1, Deploying an Add-On.
When you deploy the add-on on the target Windows machines, the disk data of these machines is available in the Chart Viewer. You can generate the Disk Allocation and Volume Utilization reports to view the disk utilization and disk allocation data of these machines. For more information on the charts and reports, see Section 5.0, Generating and Viewing Charts and Reports.
For information on undeploying the add-on, see Section 3.12.2, Undeploying an Add-On.
To collect block based disk I/O data of a target Windows machine, you must deploy the WindowsBlockBasedDiskCounters add-on on the target machine. Ensure that Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or later is installed on the target Windows machine.
For information on deploying the add-on, see Section 3.12.1, Deploying an Add-On.
When you deploy the add-on on the target Windows machines, the data for the LogicalDisk_DiskBlockWritesPerHour disk utilization counter on these machines is available in the Chart Viewer. For more information on the charts, see Section 5.0, Generating and Viewing Charts and Reports.
For information on undeploying the add-on, see Section 3.12.2, Undeploying an Add-On.